The Official 'Double P' Blog

:Golf Gripped:
Pin Pals program is getting kids from the South Bay hooked on golf
by Tod Leonard - San Diego Union Tribune

Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!

The balls on the driving range at the Chula Vista Golf Course were crisply, cleanly flying through the air, and Oscar Martinez's beautiful smile was growing by the moment.

With each solid strike, he'd turn to see the giddy reaction of the adults standing behind him.

The 13-year-old has not been able to hear or speak since birth, but there were no words for his joy anyway. Six weeks ago, he was a star in another sport, a soccer player whose fancy footwork spoke volumes about his athleticism.

Now he is showing tremendous potential in a game he had never dreamed of trying.

"I am really enjoying golf," Martinez, using sign language, said through his interpreter, Henrik Ek. "I never thought I would."

Oscar is surrounded by kids who are having the same experience.

For more than a year, school children from the South Bay, most of them underprivileged, have been participating in the Pin Pals program, founded by Tony Perez, the father of PGA Tour player Pat Perez. On one afternoon for six straight weeks, the kids get free instruction at one of three courses – Chula Vista, National City or Balboa. Teachers deliver them to the course in carpools.

To date, Perez estimates about 600 children from Garfield Alternative High, and Chula Vista and National City middle schools have moved through Pin Pals, with another 270 kids of military personnel getting free instruction on the weekends at Balboa.

When Sandra Bishop received an introductory call from Perez last year, she didn't know what to think. She is the director of the after school program at Chula Vista Middle and is always looking for fresh challenges for her kids. She had never considered golf.

"He was offering to teach the kids golf – for free!" Bishop said. "I'm thinking, 'Is this guy for real?' But Tony had been incredible, and the kids have loved it.

"A lot of these kids aren't the star athletes at school. They wouldn't normally play other sports. But they get out here and are really excited about it. And it's such a good sport for them to learn. It opens up a world they never imagined. It doesn't matter if they turn pro. This will benefit them for the rest of their lives."

Pin Pal program member Joshua Mar, 12, is a study in concentration at the Chula Vista Municipal Golf Course.

In the most recent group to go through PGA teacher Ed Harris' class at Chula Vista, the dozen kids, dressed in their school uniforms of white shirts and blue pants, arrived looking nervous and intimidated. Some are special-education students with short attention spans. One boy lives in a group home. Two are deaf.

The lone girl in the group, Shantal Ruiz, 12, is focused and intense, but she's so petite it seems she can barely lift the club. Most of the kids have no idea how to make a grip. Chipping a ball 10 yards is a struggle. A putter is a hammer in their hands.

But Harris patiently puts them through their paces in the various aspects of the game over the six weeks. Chipping and putting first. Then irons. And finally, the driver.

Each child progresses at a different pace, but they all improve. Theodore Godshalk, a good-natured kid with glasses, didn't show much aptitude the first week, but by the end, "Tiger" – his nickname before he took up golf – is striping some impressive draws to about 150 yards out.

Richard Walker Jr., 13, is one of the stud athletes at school, a three-sport star. Like Oscar, he quickly takes to golf, producing a smooth turn and swipe that most adults would envy. By the end of class, he looks like he's ready to play in some junior tournaments.

Richard Walker Sr., a stocky guy who struggled on the range to get balls in the air as the kids hit, watched his son with pride. Then he rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Christmas is coming up. Guess I'm going to have to buy him some clubs," he said. "He loves it."

Here's how good the kids were at the end of their six weeks: They were divided into two squads and played Chula Vista's par-4 first hole as a team scramble. It was a tie, each squad managing a respectable 5. The highlight? Chantal nearly drained a 40-foot par putt, coming up 18 inches short despite it being so dark she could barely see the hole. Her smile lit up the course.

This is exactly what Tony Perez envisioned. Years ago he was among the founders of the now highly successful Pro Kids Golf Academy at Colina Park. Most recently he led the First Tee program of Southern Nevada.

He longed to be back in San Diego, and he saw an opportunity to introduce free golf to kids in the South Bay, which generally is underserved compared to youth golf programs in other parts of the county.

"This is like my old neighborhood," said Perez, 59, who grew up in San Antonio, Texas, the son of a cook. "When I see these kids, I see the kids I grew up with. I see my own buddies. It's like going back in time. I love to laugh out there with them."

Perez is still living in Las Vegas while he tries to sell his home there, and he's been traveling 10 hours round trip and staying in a hotel two nights a week to get Pin Pals up and running. He said he has yet to take a salary, and that the $45,000 he's raised from private donations – much of it from the American Golf Ambassadors program – has gone to pay instructors. He has applied to the U.S. Golf Association for a grant.

"I have to raise money the grassroots way," Perez said.

Having a son playing professional golf doesn't hurt. Pat Perez staged a tournament at Riverwalk in Mission Valley on Veterans Day, and Tony Perez said the event netted $19,000 for Pin Pals.

Some Pin Pals graduates appeared that day on the range to show the tournament's players what they'd learned. Afterward, there was a Q&A session with Pat Perez, and Sandra Bishop said she watched as one high school kid, dressed in the black, baggy garb of a gang-banger, raised his hand and asked, "What's your advice for getting to the next level in golf?"

Bishop was floored.

"That was so incredible!" she said. "For that kid to get up in front of those people and ask that... He wasn't even one of my students, but I was so proud of him. I'm thinking, 'You go for it!' "